Budget MTB build -- he'p me!!!

After almost 6 years of road bike activity, I'm just a little burned out of the road -- time to return to the trails. Damn -- I thought road biking was expensive!!!! So hive -- how's about a little help building up a bike.

After a little weekend research, I think I want a full suspension (save my half-a-century old back) 27.5 (26 is dead and I think 29 is a little too much wheel)........and what else???

So far, I think I want to start with this for a frame:

Santa Cruz 2015 Bantam

SRAM I think for components (been good to me so far on my other 2 road bikes). Anything else I'm missing? Where to look/shop for parts.

Again, this is more or less a budget build -- trying to get the $$$ poured into the TVR to get it on course/track for 2016, so no high dollar MTB build in my future.

thanks!

Do you want a new bike build? If not, there are always tonnes of yuppie owned very high end bikes that were taken around the block once (or to a cafe), and then parked for a couple years. How serious a rider are you? 26" will be supported for a few years yet, and is as good as it was a year ago - tremendous savings to be had if you don't need to be at the pointy end of the stick.

I have a family member who sort of fits the yuppie category: bought a $7k 29er trigger and loads of gear. He's used it twice. His carbon road bike looks great next to it in the garage... I try to get out 3x a week on my old but well spec'd Prophet - it was never off road before I bought it a few years ago. I have about 1k into it with a new fork cartridge, modern rubber and updates rear shock.

I'm not having any less fun...

First the question is do you really need full suspension for your local terrain? I run a hardtail 27.5 and for 95% of the places I ride it's more than enough. Most people now just default to an FS bike because it's the thing to do. With the 2.4" tires on the front and rear, you get a good level of shock absorbing even without the the rear suspension.

My bike was a little over $1300. I've got a Fox 34 CTD front fork, SRAM GX 1X11 gear set, Shimano M455 brakes, and schwalbe rapid rob II 2.4" tires. I can keep up with most of the guys I run with and it keeps a big smile on my face.

I run a hardtail Trek and my back is only five years newer than yours. Most of the time I am off the seat if the stuff gets messy. The front suspension is priceless though

In reply to Nathan JansenvanDoorn:

Great feedback, and one path I was thinking of taking -- any sources for sussing out great deals like this other than the dreaded CL? I did look at my local CL -- lots of bikes that are just a couple steps above department store rides -- decided that the path to building my own would actually take less time/research.

Options for finding gently used bikes?

mad_machine wrote: I run a hardtail Trek and my back is only five years newer than yours. Most of the time I am off the seat if the stuff gets messy. The front suspension is priceless though

Thanks -- that is what I was thinking before I asked a couple local riderfolk that I know. One runs a LBS and I do value his input.....might be trying to move the merch tho'.

......and thanks to this thread I am apparently a half-dork

The cheapest way to buy decent components? Buy a complete bike and swap over the parts you need. Otherwise, as someone who does have current (and fairly high-end) mountain bikes, I can suggest the following:

Ditch the front derailleur. Current 1x10 or 11 setups with narrow-wide front rings and clutch rear derailleurs are awesome. I currently run a 11-42 10 spd on my trail bike ('14 Intense Carbine 27.5") with a 32t front ring. Even racing it for DH/Enduro without a chain guide, I don't drop chains. I'm partial to Shimano, but there's nothing wrong with SRAM stuff. They have a nice 10-42 11spd cassette which is cool, but requires a special free-hub body for the wheel.

Wide handle-bars & short stems. I'm currently running 780mm wide bars with a 60mm stem on my trail bike and the same bars with a 50mm direct-mount stem on my DH bike. How the hell we ever rode bikes with 22" wide bars and 150mm stems I'll never know. That said, such a set-up pretty much requires a current frame with "new gen" geometry which is longer and slacker. For example, my trail bike has slacker geometry than my DH bike of 15 years ago - which was an Intense M-1 and was very slack for its era. My current DH bike ('15 Intense 951 EVO 27.5) has a around a 63 degree head-angle.

The Santa Cruz you're looking at has a 12x142 thru axle rear. Make sure whatever fork you get has a thru-axle front. 15mm is most common for trail bikes. You don't want a quick-release. Even on my steel hard tail I'm running thru axles front & rear.

Dropper posts. You want one. You may not know how much you want one, but after you have one and get used to using it, you'll want one on every bike you own.

I bought a specialized hardrock for $100 recently. Used is awesome. Go used first, figure out what type of riding is available to you and what type you like. Try trolling pinkbike.com. You can get pretty local. The Blur is a great bike and can take whatever you throw at it. But you, live in Texas and it's there's no BC type freeriding around there....

For example, if you really want a Free-ride full suspension type bike.. maybe this one would be shot.

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1718147/

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1855535/

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1863423/

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1871393/

mtbr.com also has a classifieds section.

or dig around a local club. http://fwmba.org/

Ian F wrote: The cheapest way to buy decent components? Buy a complete bike and swap over the parts you need.

I'll echo this thought and add that, when shopping for a used donor bike, seek out something with a small or XL frame. They are much more difficult to sell and you may find a seller who's been stuck with it for a while and really anxious to get rid of it. Worst case? You may need longer cables and a new chain.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

Every bike you posted is a 26" bike. Yep, they're cheap, but not what the OP asked for. The drivetrain and brakes may transfer to the frame, but he'll still be looking for wheels and a few other frame-specific items. I've been down this road more times than I care to admit. Buying bikes like this for this purpose saves zero money and is usually a big PITA.

One of the more annoying issues you may run into with the Bantam is the headset. Making sure you get the right headset for a tapered head tube can be a chore.

Also... what exactly is your budget? I'm picky about components so I always build bikes a la cart from a bare frame, but it is definitely by far the most expensive way to buy a bike, despite using a smattering of used parts. Even with the sponsorship deals I get through my race team, I still have nearly $6K into my DH bike and I didn't go top of the line for everything (Zee drive train instead of Saint, for example).

I see you are in Ft. Worth. I'm in Austin. I know when I go to Waco and around there to ride I never felt the need for FS bike. I spent the extra on the front shock because of that but I'm never in the saddle much except when I'm just in XC mode. But then again, this is also my first bike I've had suspension on so it's a blessing for my 40 y/o shoulders. I'm heading out to Big Bend for a week of riding and hiking over Christmas so that will be the real test. :)

Suspension is great for feeling in control over repeatedly rough terrain. Having lived in Pennsylvania, where rocks are quite common, and now in Arizona, where rocks are quite common, having full suspension has allowed me to ride trail as speeds that would be pretty darn sketchy on a hard tail.

I'm putting my wife on a 29er full suspension for the same reason. She's a sit-n-spin type of girl, and she was just getting beat up on a hardtail. For newer riders full suspension helps with the feeling of losing control over bumps. If you're like me an grew up on bikes, hardtail isn't so bad because you use your legs as suspension.

If I lived in a coastal area of the south, or in eastern Texas, I wouldn't spend the extra money on a full suspension.

Ian F wrote: In reply to Fueled by Caffeine: Every bike you posted is a 26" bike.

what board is this? Ohh yeah it's GRM. Where you ask a question about choice a or choice b and someone comes up with E F and G?...

I think for someone who isn't a mountain biker, dropping a huge load on a 27.5'er is silly until they know the type of bike and terrain they are riding. The OP should pick up a beater and ride a bit before he decides he like MTB'ing.

Except a beater may make him not enjoy riding.

Get disc brakes, front or full-suspension, 29er preferably.

I think the stuff from BikesDirect.com can be a decent deal for an entry level bike.

PHeller wrote: Except a beater may make him not enjoy riding. Get disc brakes, front or full-suspension, 29er preferably. I think the stuff from BikesDirect.com can be a decent deal for an entry level bike.

By beater, I mean spending $1000 instead of $3K. Though, I bought a specialized newer specialized hardtail for $100 and it was a good start back into the MTB world.

I'd certainly agree. I've been riding MTB since I was 10 years old, and until recently I've never spent more than $800 on a bike. That included at a 2005 Cannondale Prophet and a 2009 KHS Tuscon 29er. I'm glad for it because I'm faster now than ever, with less injuries, less mechanical fixes, and in general more fun, because I gained my skills on the cheaper stuff. New bike has about $2500 invested in it.

Building my wife a $900 120mm Full-Suspension 29er with dropper post, disc brakes, big tires, 1x10 and hopefully that'll be the last bike she gets for 10 years.

Buy a used 29er that was ~$1000-1500 new. Replace the wheels when you bend one (you will). Go tubeless.

Then just worry about other stuff when it breaks. By the time you've got enough miles on it to break some more serious stuff, just sell the bike and upgrade to a bike that was more like $2500 or $3000 new.

That's what I've been doing anyway. I've put like 3 years and many many many miles on my '12 Specialized Rockhopper. The front fork is garbage, but after replacing the wheels with a set of American Classics I snagged off CL, its a good bike. I like beating on it. I went to a 1x9 setup by snagging a raceface front ring, and then did a OneUp 40t on the rear as well (even though you aren't supposed to do this).

Huh, didn't realize there were other Fort Worth people here. I was going to wait for Christmas to buy a Kona from Trinity bikes, but now that they are out of business I'm kind of back at square one. Have you had any good experiences with other local shops?

Again - knowing his budget would help me a lot with recommendations. And just saying "cheap as possible" won't really help because the options are too varied depending on what you can do yourself and how good you are at finding deals.

Forgive me if my POV is skewed. I've been doing this too long and my bikes have been "top of the line" for too long, and I'm used to a certain level of performance. I've recently started unloading most of the old high (XTR) parts I've collected over the years since I've started using new parts and well... it just works better and makes riding more fun.

Downhill racing is a different animal, so comparisons there are difficult. Plus, most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about anyway...

Ian F wrote: Again - knowing his budget would help me a lot with recommendations. And just saying "cheap as possible" won't really help because the options are too varied depending on what you can do yourself and how good you are at finding deals. Forgive me if my POV is skewed. I've been doing this too long and my bikes have been "top of the line" for too long, and I'm used to a certain level of performance. I've recently started unloading most of the old high (XTR) parts I've collected over the years since I've started using new parts and well... it just works better and makes riding more fun. Downhill racing is a different animal, so comparisons there are difficult. Plus, most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about anyway...

Ian -- thanks so much for the input -- lots to digest -- and a lot of terminology that I had to get familiar with . For the record, I'm shooting for a sub $2k build. Hence the SC frameset I found and showed above. Found it for $650, that gives me ~$1500 for the rest. Know that a dropper post (found out about that this weekend -- you're right, it's a must!) and a good fork is going to gobble up almost half of that, between parts I have here and some other judicious scrounging, I could come in right around $2k.

Going to check out pinkbike now for a few minutes. Thanks everyone for the assistance -- all the info is really helpful!!!

Ojala wrote: Huh, didn't realize there were other Fort Worth people here. I was going to wait for Christmas to buy a Kona from Trinity bikes, but now that they are out of business I'm kind of back at square one. Have you had any good experiences with other local shops?

Ojala -- Bonzai Cycle Werx is my LBS. Brian the owner is knowledgable and willing to help in anyway possible.

Cool. You should have too much trouble building a very nice bike for that amount.

Another F/S source is Facebook groups. Especially as we head into the holiday season, guys are unloading stuff pretty cheap. More so if you have cash in hand. I've seen a couple of very nice, newer bikes for about that price.

How much are you looking to spend?

See above -- $2k or so.